Thoughts on Airbnb guest alteration requests

[Vera-and-Roger0]

A guest just made an alteration request on the calendar, the original date was a perfect fit and now they wish to arrive two days later making it harder to get those days occupied. Plus they wish to stay one more night than previously and they will pay less than originaly because of the price fluctuation. So I will lose at least 3 days of earnings because of this.

Don't find documentation about how the hosts can defend themselves from alteration requests: either they accept the new reservation (even if it's not good ) or they suffer penalty in declining it. Did not find a way to update the prices on an alteration request. Think alteration requests should give the opportunity to the host of updating the price as up as the original price agreement between both parts.

It's like this : as a guest I make a reservation for some host on the calendar and accept that original price. Then as guest again, I'd look from time to time if the host is making price changes  on the calendar and at the last minute ask for an alteration request. The guest would leave the host in a position of having to accept the change in reservation or having a rating penalty on airbnb.

Many hosts fluctuate their prices when the dates are becoming closer, so I think there should be some information about this kind of situation.

[Monica4]

Tell them that if they wish to change their dates they have to cancel and re-book, and of course pay any cancelation penalties. That should take care of the situation.

[Jessa1]

Hi Monica, Jessa here .... hope you can help... I had a guest that requested 3 days in april...then realized it was Jan 14,15 16, , I sent in the alteration request and he said he could not see where to accept it...and my reservations did not change.

So here they are staying here now...and my reservation still says april... does this mean I only get paid in april?  In over a year this is the first time this has happened.. 

Do you also know how to contact Airbnb to deal with this issue...I have looked everywhere.

Thanks a lot...

Jessa.... what is a Level 4 

[Neti1]

Hi Jessa, here's a great article about how to contact Airbnb:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide-UPDATED/m-p/413245

It's hard to know why your guest couldn't accept the change request, it's usually very simple. Perhaps the reservation wa pending at the time. You could try again, even though they are there now. Then you can help them to choose the Accept link in the change request.

Neti

[Alex893]

Level four is how much you post. You are level two, that means you have posted a few times. The more you post here, the higher the level with highest being level 10

[Sheila22]

How can you make them cancel and rebook?

[Michael2769]

very bad experience on the customer side >> will not be satisfied -- never behave this way

[Oksana--Linda-And-Kai0]

Hi Vera & Roger,

What pentaly is there for not accepting a change request? I think you can just decline it and then the reservation stays the same. Or do you mean the guest will then leave you a bad review?

[Sheila22]

The guest will certainly leave a bad review if you decline the "alteration".  It is a lose/lose situation for hosts.  Airbnb needs to fix this.  I don't think the guest have any penalty on those days that they are cancelling (if it is an alteration rather than cancelling a whole trip).  Am I right about this?  I have been looking everywhere to find this out. 

It would be outrageous if they do not get the cancellation penalty for those cancelled days.

[Claudio-and-Moo--ส-บย-คล0]

I have had 2 cases where the guest wants to alter their booking last minutes where I would most likely not be able to rebook those dates. In both cases refused to change the dates but in each cases I got terrible reviews. Guest lied about my place because they were angry I did not accept the date changes. I normally get 5 stars most of the time and I am a Superhost. I have 4 properties on Airbnb and the only bad reviews I aver had was from refusing to modify booking dates.

Airbnb needs to protect host from this situation. I sent 2 messages to customer service about this and they never replied anything.

[David196]

if there is a superhost, perhaps we should have a superguest. my two cents

[Bryan587]

I one hundred percent agree to there being a superguest status for those that are respectful of our homes.

[Gregory57]

So relax. Your good reviews will far outweigh the sour grapes reviews. Don't be a slave to reviews. 

[Anagha--Ana-0]

This is really sad. I am in similar situation and I totally agree with you that airbnb should protect host in this case. Also, there is no point in keeping cancellation policies, because, guest will simply send alteration request and probably get almost full refund if we accept it.

[Jules138]

airbnb needs to do something about it definitely. They should protect host from retaliating guests